Commentary and analysis on markets, personal finance, and wealth building from a contrarian perspective. "I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting there and trying to dream it up all yourself. Nobody’s that smart."
— Charlie Munger

Pages

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Lithium shortage in five years?

(snip)Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA last month announced plans to increase its capacity to produce lithium carbonate from 48,000 to 63,000 metric tons a year. At that rate, it would reach its output limit of about 1 million tons well before the concession with Corfo, which owns the land, expires in 2030. Extracting more from the area would require applying for new licenses. SQM is embroiled in a dispute with Corfo over royalty payments.“We estimate it will reach its quota and be forced to stop producing lithium in the Atacama salt flat in 2022,” Corfo Executive Vice President Eduardo Bitran said in an interview from his Santiago offices. "If demand keeps growing at the current rate, projections show a period of significant lithium scarcity.”

In other news Galaxy Resources, my hard rock lithium miner in Australia, got knocked down after a misinformed article by Deutsche Bank suggested that a new source of lithium could knock the price of lithium substantially lower.